Explorethe future of culture
Special focus on artificial intelligence and trans-culturalstorytelling
Exciting case analyses will present the latest trends in theinternational content industry
FromMay 28 to June 1, the StoryDrive Exhibition and Conference segment of the 2019China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) will be held at thethird floor of the China National Convention Center. StoryDrive is aninternational all-media professional event, and made its debut at theFrankfurter Buchmesse in 2010. It has since become a famous conference brandand bellwether for the international publishing media industry. Since the firstCIFTIS began in 2012, Frankfurt Book Fair and Creative Publishing ConsultingLtd. have successfully held six StoryDrives in Beijing, which have been verywell received by local and foreign professionals. StoryDrive, which bringstogether opinion leaders from around the world in the fields of globalliterature, publishing, film and television, design and mass media, amongothers, not only introduces advanced ideas and successful cases to China, italso provides an international cross-media platform for presenting China’sexcellent content industry.
GongYingxin, General Manager of Creative Publishing, said that 16 leading playersin the international all-media sector from five countries and territories willspeak at the 2019 CIFTIS StoryDrive Conference held between May 31 and June 1,and 16 keynote speeches, master classes and high-end dialogues will be held.“The Future of Culture” is the theme of the 2019 StoryDrive Conference, andwill feature artificial intelligence (AI) and new storytelling, as well astrans-media & trans-cultural storytelling, with “Belt and Road” to remainits basis of planning.
Northernand Western Europe will be the overseas market highlight of the “Belt and Road”theme. Trade meetings with the Chinese publishing media industry will bearranged to promote business exchanges between these markets and China.
AIhas already made a comprehensive entry into the media sector. One of thecore themes of this year’s StoryDrive is to explore AI’s performancein media integration and its impact on the media industry going forward.
HolgerVolland, Vice President of Frankfurt Book Fair, and Colin Lovrinovic, ManagingDirector at Gould Finch GmbH, will jointly release the results of the globalartificial intelligence survey of the publishing industry, and present anin-depth analysis of the impact of the report’s results on the future growth ofthe industry.
AIhas also had a significant impact on China’s innovative internet enterprises.Tian Feng, Director of Alibaba Cloud Research Center China, will give adetailed presentation on the latest development in AI as well as its futureimpact on the media and lifestyles.
Acase analysis on the AI sector will come from China’s “Gu Zhen Xiao Jian”, anAI software that condenses books, plots storyline curves, and generates annualrankings for novels. What does the emergence of Xiao Jian mean to traditionalediting? Can an AI writing program replace online writers? Will AI affectwriting and reading? Zou Zou, founder of “Gu Zhen Xiao Jian”, senior editor andauthor, is here to brainstorm with you.
Thesecond case analysis on the AI sector will be presented by Remi AI, anAustralian AI company dedicated to developing natural language processing(NLP). This technology is able to increase efficiency significantly in terms ofgenerating new and persuasive content, and has wide application potential inthe publishing industry.
The second theme of the 2019 StoryDrive is trans-cultural storytelling,with a star-studded line up of guest speakers.
Tokick things off, Shanghai son-in-law and China’s online celebrity, Afu. The30-year-old German Afu Thomas has lived in Shanghai for four years. His fluentMandarin and Shanghainese has already made him a bona fide “Shanghaison-in-law” and a “Chinese self-media online celebrity”. In the last threeyears, the series of Chinese and German cultural related videos he has releasedvia WeChat, Weibo, youtube and other social media platforms have been viewedmore than 600 million times, and has gained him more than 7 million fans acrossall platforms. He actively participates in Chinese-German cultural activities,and was invited to accompany German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier duringhis entire visit to China in December 2018.
YangLiu, renowned bestselling author, designer and university professor is anotherstar speaker. Yang Liu has always traversed between East and West, and herpersonal experience and creations have consistently remained in atrans-cultural setting. The same story could be understood completelydifferently, and even have an entirely contrary interpretation. Professor YangLiu, author of East Meets West, will tell you all about how to transcendcultural boundaries.
The2019 StoryDrive Conference is also very fortunate to have been able to inviteone of the most famous Norwegian bestselling authors, Erlend Loe, to grace theevent. The works of novelist and screenwriter Erlend Loe debuted in 1993. Todate, he has published 11 novels as well as children and literary works. He hasalso published a series of film and TV scripts. His works have been translatedinto 35 languages.
Thehighlight of the 2019 StoryDrive is the sector that has garnered the greatestattention in the content industry today: science fiction (SF). 2019 is thefirst year of SF movies in China, with no small credit to author Liu Cixin.StoryDrive has specially invited SF author Sebastian Pirling, and editor of theGerman edition of Liu Cixin’s works. Pirling will speak about the reception ofSF authors, represented by Liu Cixin, in the Germany market, and analyze thedevelopment trends in SF content. In addition, Deng Yun, video and brand VP ofChina’s largest SF literature platform, “Future Affairs Administration”, willgive a detailed presentation of the latest developments in SF literature inChina.
Theorganizers of StoryDrive have also specially organized a German publishingdelegation comprising eight senior managers to promote trade in services. Thedelegation will fully participate in the conference and exhibition, and willconduct a week-long series of business visits and exchanges during the CIFTISperiod.
TheStoryDrive exhibition will be held at a 120 m2 area on the thirdfloor of the conference zone, and will feature: the 2018 “Most Beautiful Booksin Germany” exhibition, an exhibition of award-winning works from the 2018Global Illustration Award, a special exhibition celebrating A Century of Bauhaus and the Triadic Ballet Interactive Display, IPRinternational online copyright transaction platform (presentation and workshop),the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair book collections, and a special exhibition of YangLiu’s works, among others. More than 50 art works and over 200 books will bepresented at the exhibition. The latest achievements of exhibitors from fivecountries will also be showcased.
Inaddition, the StoryDrive organizers will organize two receptions, “NorwayCulture and Publishing” on May 31, and “German Culture and Publishing” on June1.
TheStoryDrive platform has always focused on media integration, which is gatheringpace in the digital era. The boundaries between books, movies, videos, games,animation, design and other sectors have become increasingly vague, and thecore position of content resources has become increasingly apparent.Cross-media conversion and trans-cultural communication are content ofparticular focus to StoryDrive. Its purpose is to build bridges in differentmedia sectors, and between different cultures, and to promote international tradein services in the content industry.